Spring Greens

This month, spring officially begins! The island looks fresh and green after the winter rains and in the countryside, wild flowers are starting to come into bloom. From now until late May / early June (when the island starts to fry and hordes of visitors descend) nature lovers seeking to explore the flora of Crete will have a field day (sorry about the pun)! Crete is what is known as an ecological hotspot due to the sheer number and diversity of endemic plant species. It is estimated that there are about 2000 species of plants to be found on Crete, of which approximately 10% are endemic.

The richness and diversity of the flora and fauna on Crete stem (sorry once again!) in part from Crete’s geographical position in the Mediterranean and geological background. At the beginning of the Miocene Era - 23 million years ago - what was later to become the Aegean was an area of dry land (known as Aegaeis) connecting Greece to Asia. Somewhere around 11-13 million years ago waters from the Mediterranean started to flood Aegaeis, resulting in the formation of a group of ‘Cretan’ islands. To cut a very long story short, eventually after many climatic and geological shifts, Crete developed into the island form it has today: long and thin, dominated by an almost continuous chain of mountains covering more than half the island’s surface area and also characterized by impressive gorges and fertile plateaus.

Orchids and Oaks, Cacti and Crocuses

To be perverse we haven’t included pictures of any of the above in this article, but have provided you with a totally random selection of ‘plants we like’. The picture on the bottom right of this section is actually that of an Agave americana (NOT A CACTUS, so I’ve been told by Wikipedia). This plant is not actually endemic to Crete but arrived here as a Mexican tourist at some point during the 17th Century and settled down well (the little known Sombrero mariachi plant can also be found on this island if you know how to look). The Agave only flowers once during its lifetime, and only after it has reached puberty. You’ll find a load of them round Plakias way, and it’s one of those things that helps to give the island its special look—not entirely European?.

Crete is well known for its wide variety of orchids, and, in fact, some visitors come to the island for this very reason. We are not experts (see below for some pointers towards some sensible guidance), but now would appear to be a good time to start looking out for them—the chief flowering period being between March and May. You’ll find some extremely rare orchids in some surprisingly mundane locations, for example, in this region, olive groves are fertile ground.

That’s the tropically exotic stuff over and done with. Now for the oak trees, crocuses and tulips. For a lot of people, when they think of ’trees’ and ‘Crete’ it will be olives and citrus that automatically spring to mind. But this island is surprisingly good at other types of trees too. You’ll find apples on Lasithi and cherries at Gerakari. Many centuries ago there were heaps of oaks on the island, too, but ancient goats liked them as a snack. So, not so many any more, but you’ll still find the occasional quirky Quercus about. The best surviving ‘oak paradise’ round these parts is at Rouva, near Zaros—(South flank of the Psiloritis mountain range) which is a protected ‘heritage / eco site’.

Winter crocuses — they seem to do their bling thing all over the island whenever they happen to feel like it.

And once you’ve seen a wild Cretan tulip, you can forget Amsterdam.

Some Sources of Further Information: Guides and Guidebooks

Pashmina has realised (yet again!) halfway through writing her spotlight feature that she has bitten off far more than she could chew in terms of being able to give a potted history of the botanicals. Apologies to one and all, however, help is at hand. For those who would like to get out and about and explore the flora with the aid of knowledgeable guides at his time of year, there are some good tour groups in the Rethymnon area that will point you in the right direction. Try www.winterincrete.com (see our ad on the back page) for starters. For hard copy guide books that go beyond the generic we would recommend the publications that are brought out by the locally based publisher ‘Mediterraneo Editions’ - well formatted, informative and user friendly (available in shops in Rethymnon that sell international newspapers, and you can find them online at the www.mediterraneo.gr website). We also like Jennifer Gay’s book “Greece: Garden of the Gods” (www.athensnews.gr ISBN 960-86395-4-9), firstly for her overall perspective on the ‘Greek’ landscape and climate, and also (perhaps more importantly?) for the sensible advice that she gives to those of us who like to try our hands at doing a bit of gardening here….